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Fight the relentlessness of evil. Teach history.

Outside of the United States, the period from Nov 1 to 11 honors “Remembrance Day,” and along with it comes the moral injunction “Lest we forget.”

In that spirit, I implore future history teachers to contextualize the racist fascist who got elected president in 2016, not as some sort of isolated foolish aberration but as a synergist metastasis of the worst evils that have lurked within the American ethos for centuries.

I’ve noticed the term “Trumpism” appearing more and more. It hits some internal notch with me, where I can hear a future version of my late, great, 11th-grade U.S. History teacher talking about “The Know-Nothings, Eugenics, and Trumpism.”

I remember, back in 1990, when my 11th grade US history teacher required all the students to come into school at 8pm to watch “Birth of a Nation” and then discuss it. Like typical teens, we were all grumpy about having to go to school at night (I guess there was an important episode of “Wings” or something). The movie was a shock: to the contemporary eye, it was absurdly overacted and transparently racist. But it was clearly a blockbuster movie-styled piece of propaganda, a reminder of the racist infection with the hearts of American ancestors and the entertainment that stirred them.

Below is a supercut of Trump appropriating and perverting a song written by 60’s era civil rights activist Oscar Brown, Jr. Trump has turned it into a nativist battle cry. Hear and see how the invective in Trump’s voice brings the house down in venue after venue. Every time, for years, there has been wild and unbridled enthusiasm. This terrifying approbation was the lesson my history teacher tried to teach his class.

Although there are calls for national healing: convalescence is a part of healing that can vary significantly from individual to individual. Lest we forget the symptom of our national sickness that has obnoxiously presented itself: Observe the cheering crowd delighting in this sneering monster at the podium with his brazenly racist aggression, and try to be realistic in your expectations for such ardor to fade.

In the long days, months, and years ahead, you will face defenders and apologists who try to push transparent and infuriating lies like “People looked past Trump’s rhetoric because they liked his economic policies.” Understand that your appeals to logic and reason are simply not going to sway that person. Neither will this person be moved by your appeals to some universal sense of humanity. Expect this person to shrug and just refuse to acknowledge a substantial portion of the 69 Million people who voted for Trump did not do so despite his racism; rather, these people voted for Trump because of the racism.

I hope that such apologists will eventually confront the truth and then deal with the shame alone. Then there can be remorse, amends, and reconciliation. Yet, I am resigned to the expectation that many will never make that journey and that the healing of this nation’s soul is a process not of several weeks, but of many more generations.

In the meantime, there is the teaching of history.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Pr. 18:21

Because evil is relentless, so too must be the struggle against it.

Everything right is wrong again…

In my lifetime, I have never seen the United States so broken. This is worse than the hostage crisis, worse than the crack epidemic, worse that before there was a plan for AIDS, worse than the Oklahoma City bomber, worse than post 9/11, worse than Hurricanes Katrina+Rita.

What was it like to be in a country where the U.S. overthrew the government? I’m talking about places like Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, and Hawaii. What was it like for the world to turn upside down and for neighbors to turn on each other as all civility breaks down and all disputes are in bad faith?

I suppose we are about to find out.

…All the dishes got broken and the car kept driving
And nobody would stop to save her

And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
The song is over now

Feeding the Hungry

My daughter has now graduated High School and will be going to college in the fall. Over the summer, she will be working with AmeriCorp and the United Way to connect children who are food-insecure to Free Summer Meals at hundreds of sites all over the county. This morning, she exclaimed with delight “It’s real food! Like fresh vegetables, produce, pita pockets with real cheese. Its healthy food! Delicious food!” She is so proud to be part of a first-class effort. Although in many typical ways a cynical, know-it-all teenager, her love for children and compassion for people in need comes through. I am so happy that she found this path.

Shortly after I started this particular blog in 2010, I wrote the following Devotion for a well-known charity newsletter:

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” — Phil 1:9-11

It seems a paradox to be both abounding with love and highly discerning.  Knowledge and discernment can make it easier for us to identify all that is flawed and not excellent about the world.  So Paul challenges us to sharply hone our senses, both our moral and physical senses, and not simply to condemn what is wanting, but to do the more difficult work of approving what is excellent.

Maybe its not accurate to say that Paul challenges us.  He prays that we do not become cynical and distrustful of loving, believing it to be naive. And for certain, it would be naive not to know that we live in a world where humanity is fallen, broken, and sinful. But it also takes more knowledge and discernment to understand that the Good News that Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness and that we should seek him in the world, in others, and in ourselves. Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1 is for all of Christ’s disciples: those who teach, those who care, those who share and spread Jesus’ love. Paul’s prayer is also for those who are in need of abounding love: the children and family who need our help, but who also need to know that God’s love is within them, that it is excellent, and that through Jesus Christ it will grow more and more until the love is abounding.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Your excellence and the fruits of righteousness are the greatest knowledge. I love them, want to share them, and want to help others to discover them. Grant me the strength to do your work, the wisdom to do it well, the Joy to do it with love, and the faith to know that your Will shall be done. Amen.

For years, I would do some sort of variant on this prayer before we broke bread as a family. At some point, however, I stopped encouraging the kids to say grace at dinner. I became cynical, exhausted, and despairing. My children are skeptical — like true scientists. They are also full of hope and joy — like true Christians.

Here is the experience of Grace: Listening to my daughter discern with a scientific eye and scholarly mind that there are structural inequities and injustices which create a prosperous community that nevertheless has thousands of hungry children, and in the next breath express abounding love for the bringing good food to children who need it. It does not matter that I got discouraged and wandered away from a church home and stopped praying. It does not matter that I am tired. Somehow, the message got through to my kids and today my daughter is in the world doing good works. God’s Will be done. Amen.